Thursday, November 28, 2019

Aldi Case Essay Example

Aldi Case Essay 1)What are the core elements to Aldi’s business strategy? Be specific as to what they are doing that sets them apart from competition and WHY this is different than their competitors? The core elements to Aldi’s business strategy are to offer top quality and extremely low prices. One article states that in the Midwest, Aldi’s prices are â€Å"15% and 20% less than Wal-Mart and 30% to 40% cheaper than regional chains. † The company also focuses on selling goods that have a high turnover such as food and beverages. Aldi receives shipments of goods five to six times a week and it takes anywhere from one to four days for delivery. Aldi’s organized and simple supply chain allows for fast shipment. However, what makes Aldi unique is that while it carries a diverse set of 1,500 products, it does not compare to the number of products sold by Walmart at 125,000. Therefore Aldi offers an enjoyable shopping experience for its customers. Customers do not feel overwhelmed by all of the choices of products like they may do at a Walmart store. A major difference between the two companies is how fast they replenish their products. Walmart uses an extremely complex system that can create lag time in the supply chain. We will write a custom essay sample on Aldi Case specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Aldi Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Aldi Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Also, Aldi strives on promoting its own brand unlike its competitors. 95% of its goods are the Aldi brand. I believe Aldi is different from its competitors because the company is foreign based and that it is a small format. In the New York Times article about why Aldi has succeeded in cities where Walmart has not it says a major reason is because of its small product line. A simple product line has allowed Aldi to be very profitable. Focusing on one genre of products to sell, Aldi can increase the quality of those products. The company does not spread itself out too thin and strives on brining the lowest best quality product to the shelves. )Why have they been so successful over the years? This should be from a consumer perspective. Different from #1 which is from the company perspective. What is the compelling consumer need or perception that they fill in the marketplace. How do they compare to our biggest discounter in food, Walmart? I believe Aldi has become so successful over the years because the company strives on simplicity. Employees of Aldi understand consumer behavior very well. They know consumers are lazy and want to be in and out of stores in the quickest time possible. Therefore, Aldi management has created a shopping experience meant for the â€Å"in and out shopper† which has seen great positive affects. To be the most efficient store, Aldi’s â€Å"do not accept checks or credit cards. There is no butcher or bakery, and fruit is sold in bags to speed checkout. † Compared to Walmart, a store that offers a far less enjoyable consumer experience, Aldi strives to be different. Unlike Aldi’s, Walmart stores can sometimes be intimidating to consumers because of the vast array of product offerings. Consumers find shopping at Walmart to be difficult because there is not a lot of help and that the store is just too large. Aldi’s on the other hand, creates a much more consumer friendly atmosphere by offering only food and household items. Also when you walk into an Aldi store, you are immediately in a shopping aisle. The store is designed so consumers need to walk through every aisle creating more chances of incidental exposure. Aldi stores are not designed to look pretty. The only purpose they offer to consumers is to help them find products that they need. 3)After visiting our local Aldi’s store, why do you think this global powerhouse may struggle to do well in the US? What was your initial impression of the store? Who shops there? After visiting the store, I believe this global powerhouse may struggle in the US because the inside of the store is not very conducive to providing a great shopping experience. The aisles are messy and the products look as if they were pulled out from the back of a truck. The store is dimly lit and seems almost dirty. When I walked into the store, I was originally taken back because I had a mindset that it was going to be very nice. However, I was wrong. I did not enjoy my surroundings and I did not believe that Aldi focuses on the high quality portion of their mission, but only the low cost. Also, the customers that Aldi attracts are lower class individuals. These people shop in bulk and are attracted to the store because of the low prices. They do not care about the sloppiness of the displays just that they can get the lowest price. 4)Knowing what you do about assortment, what part of the ROA equation do you think they maximize? Explain. I believe Aldi maximizes the total assets part of the formula. Because the company strives on stocking it shelves with a limited number of products, their total assets are relatively low. This creates a higher ROA. Aldi has done a very good job at maximizing sales while controlling expenses. The higher the income and lower the total assets shows how well Aldi is producing earnings from its assets. 5)Now, talk to someone that has shopped at a Trader Joe’s, also owned by Aldi. Why do you think this similar strategy with a completely different execution (in store look and feel) might be more successful here in the US. Look at their US locations for Trader Joe’s. How can they continue to have limited assortment and yet cater to a more affluent target than Aldi’s stores? Based on the article you read, why do you think Trader Joes and Aldi’s are so secretive about their business? Many US businesses see it as PR if they are covered in the press, these entities feel this is unnecessary. What would you do if the head of marketing for the parent company, adapt to US marketing standards of transparency builds relationships or keep your image hidden and let your products, locations, etc speak for themselves? (Explain your rationale using marketing principles not just your opinion). I believe this similar strategy with a different execution of Trader Joe’s is more successful here because they are more aware of what American consumers want and how they shop. Trader Joe’s connects with its consumers on a more personal level. Their employees are friendly and their displays are unique, creating an overall enjoyable shopping experience. I think Trader Joe’s is more successful because the company swaps selection for quality. Customers have begun to trust Trader Joe’s in that what ever is on their shelves is the best possible product. Aldi does not have this trust yet. With time, more and more customers will begin to trust the foreign company in that their offerings are of the best quality. Also, I believe Aldi needs to focus ore on creating nicer displays. Currently, these stores are very messy and this could be a reason consumers do not like shopping there. Trader Joe’s can target more affluent people by offering more unique products. Already it offers exotic, affordable luxuries and for it further differentiate itself from Aldi, Trader Joe’s should expand these types of products while cutting back on more common products they sell. Based on the article, I believe Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s are so secretive about how they run their individual businesses because they have been so successful. I believe they do not want larger stores such as Walmart and Target to figure out their key to success. Because Walmart and Target occupy a large sector of the market and are both extremely powerful, Aldi and Trader Joe’s do not want to be overtaken by them. If I were head of marketing I would continue with keeping the companies image hidden for a period of time. If this tactic was not working, I would soon then adapt to a more transparent company. US consumers like to hear from their favorite companies and they like to feel a connection to the upper levels of management, therefore companies who are more hidden from them may not fare as well.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Jungian Theories in Fifth Business Essay Example

Jungian Theories in Fifth Business Essay Example Jungian Theories in Fifth Business Essay Jungian Theories in Fifth Business Essay Jungian Theories in Fifth Business The first instalment, Fifth Business, in The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies incorporates many different ideas to help the book progress as smoothly as it does. Davies interest in psychology heavily influenced many of the actions and ideas portrayed in the novel. By combining the psychology theories of the famed psychologist, Carl Jung, with creatively designed characters, Davies was able to create his finest piece of literature. Many characters in the novel are based around the ideas of Jung and among them, the main protagonist, Dunstan Ramsey, has these deas applied. The individuation of Dunstan is a continuous Journey throughout the novel as he tries to find out what he needs to do to find out who he truly is and his anima/animus characteristics that are evident progressing through the book. Individuation, as defined by Carl Jung, is the psychological process that makes a human being an individual a unique, indivisible unit or a whole man. The development of Dunstan Ramseys individuation develops as he grows older and starts to find himself. The meeting of Diana Marfleet after the First World War is the irst phase of Dunstans individuation as this was his first real relationship with a woman. As their relationship grew, however, Dunny began to reject Dian because of the fact that he felt she was more of a motherly fgure to him rather than a partner. Conversely, later in the novel, the emergence of the beautiful Faustina fills the sexual void in Dunstan that Diana could not. But one of the most important characters to the development of Dunstan is the manly bisexual Liesl. Liesl is the first and only person that truly understands Dunstan and she allows him to rediscover his body and mind. Dunstan began life with fewer weaknesses, perhaps, than other people, but the weaknesses he did have were great and limiting. He mitigated these significantly during his lifetime, for his and others benefit, means that he made real and permanent progress. Included in Jungs many other proposed psychological theories are the ideas of anima and animus. Jung suggests that in the unconscious of males one can find the expressions of a feminine inner personality, this being anima; similarly, one can find an expression of a masculine inner personality in females, animus. However, one has oth anima and animus characteristics. Dunnys anima is very present from the beginning of the novel. The guilt of the snowball hitting Mrs. Dempster stayed with Dunstan for the rest of his life. This event caused Dunstan to adopt a motherly role in that he felt the need to take care of Mary. His animus is evident when he decided to Join the army. Dunstan felt that he wasnt the man he wanted to be so in choosing to enlist made him hope that he could find who he is. Dunstan felt the need to show his masculinity by Joining the armed forces and at the point where he decided to ush the machine gun nest was the point where it showed his need for more masculinity. Dunstans wonder and desire to find ways to lift the guilt of the snowball off his shoulders is evident in his Journey to find out who he really is. Through meeting people from Mary and Paul, Boy and Leola, Liesl and Faustina, helped Dunstan in reaching individuation. And by his unique anima and animus characteristics, Dunstan was able to find out what he wanted in life and what he wanted to give to others. Both Jungian theories are connected to Dunstan Ramsey in Davies Fifth Business.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Quantitative Methods and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Quantitative Methods and Analysis - Essay Example Particular demographic information includes employees’ gender, age group, department, position, and length of tenure with the company. Job satisfaction and satisfaction with the benefits received are measured using a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7, with 1 representing a â€Å"Least Satisfied† measure while 7 represents a â€Å"Most Satisfied† measure. Employee gender is either male or female; age group was divided into three, with those belonging to age 16 to 21, 22 to 49, and 50 to 65. Employees were classified according to three possible departments: Human Resources, Information Technology, and Administration; they were classified as either hourly employees who were eligible for overtime pay, or salaried employees who were not eligible for overtime pay. Their tenure with the company was also noted in the database and subdivided into three levels: less than two years, 2 to 5 years, and more than 5 years. In today’s day and age, statistics finds more and mo re uses in the workplace. For example, statistics is used to find the demographic distribution of employees in the workplace (Black, 2010). Those working in the Quality Control department use statistics to determine the products that are of good enough quality to be distributed to the market. Managers use statistics to determine employee performance and operational costs and values. Employees use statistics to keep track of their performance level too, knowing very well that such figures may mean the difference between promotion and service termination (Anderson, Sweeney, & Williams, 2009). Any organization that uses appropriate and correctly interpreted statistics will truly benefit in providing a more scientific venue for their decision making needs. With the use of statistics, problems may be identified early on, and corrected as necessary (Rubin, 2009). Moreover, statistics also provides evidence and actual proof of where an organization may focus its resources, whether in the f orm of physical or human capital. As the rest of this report will illustrate, statistics may be used to determine the thoughts and feelings of an organization’s members. This is very crucial because human resource and the satisfaction and proper treatment of employees should be a major concern for any organization (Cook, 2008). In placing the focus on the information provided by the database, it was found that 61% of the surveyed employees were male and 39% were female. These figures indicate that while females have long been in the employed sector, employees are still predominantly male. Among male employees, 54% have been with the company less than two years, 32% have been with the company between two to five years, and 14% have been with the company more than five years. Among female employees, 21% have been with the company less than two years, 58% have been with the company between two to five years, and 21% have been with the company more than five years. These statisti cs show that female employees are more loyal career-wise because they tend to stay with their company for a longer period of time. When it comes to extrinsic job satisfaction, males and female tend to be similarly satisfied with a mean value of 5.4 for both genders. This value seems to translate to overall job satisfaction as there is a 41% chance that an employee’s overall job satisfaction level is at least 5.2. When classified according to department, majority of the employees were in